YESSSS! Finally, my streak of terribly cooked steak has been redeemed. After a disastrous outing at The Clocktower and a so-so experience at Quality Eats, I was starting to feel like my steak eating days in NYC were numbered. But Vince was determined to prove me wrong. Quality Meats has been on my list of a while but since it's in Midtown, I rarely find a reason to be up there. But this is definitely worth the trek up there - plus with the Midtown Tunnel not too far away, it's pretty easy to get back to Williamsburg quickly.
First, the decor is beautiful and elegant. Unlike Quality Eats, which is more funky and casual, this is a bit more upscale and dare I say stuffy? It's not white table cloth stuffy but you can tell it takes itself more seriously than its sister restaurant downtown. It's a fairly cavernous space with two levels which is pretty unheard of in NYC. The menu is what you would expect of a solid steakhouse: meat, meat and more meat with a raw bar and tasty side dishes. Since we were trying to redeem ourselves from our last steak meal, we just went all out with our ordering: shrimp cocktail ($17), lump crabmeat cocktail ($22), tomato salad ($18), porterhouse for two ($49/pp), the quality potato ($11) and the creamed spinach ($12). Yes, this was enough food for probably 4 people but it was worth every freaking calorie.
They start you off with a cute amuse bouche of a block of cheddar cheese and a small ritz cracker on top and then they give you this amazing looking bread. Knowing that I was eating enough food to keep me warm for the entire winter, I opted out of the bread but it looked delicious. The shrimp cocktail and lump crab meat were out of this world. The shrimp was very plumb and large in size - the way a proper shrimp cocktail should be. The crab, this is where I am very discerning, was fantastic. 100% pure crab heaven that tasted freshly picked - it's totally overpriced at $22 but also totally worth it. Next came the tomato "salad" - I use quotation marks here because it's not really a salad and it's actually quite unhealthy. It's 4 red juicy thick slices of beefsteak tomatoes covered in bacon bites and blue cheese and served with onion rings. The combination of blue cheese, tomato and bacon is heavenly. The dish totally didn't need the onion rings but hey, why not throw that in there when you're already eating an unhealthy "salad"?
Next came the star of the show - the porterhouse steak. When we were at The Clocktower, the steak came out beyond charred. Probably one of the most massively overcooked pieces of meat I've had in a while and then they compensated with one of the most rare pieces of meat ever. This one, however, was just right. Pink and bloody on the inside and seared brown to keep the juices in on the outside. They slice is up before you get to the table (as they should) so that you can see each delicious slice. Melt in your mouth and it cut through the knife with ease. The only "bad" thing I can say is that there were 1-2 bites that were a bit tough but those were the end pieces - if you stick to the pieces sliced in the middle, they were perfect. The creamed spinach was a classic and must whenever you have steak - they really pureed the hell out of it because it was one of the smoothest creamed spinaches I've ever had. The quality potato is basically a baked potato + mashed potato with cheese and potato chips smothered on top of it - amazing but so unnecessary. We pretty much housed the entire steak with only one small end piece left and I thought I was going to explode. But then, of course, the manager recognizes Vince and sends us a free dessert - which we were originally going to pass on because we were both about to keel over and pass out. But oh my - if you have room for dessert, go for it. They sent us a sticky toffee cake with fig ice cream and it was fantastic. I'm generally not a sticky toffee gal but this one was moist and delicious with the right amount of sweetness. The fig ice cream was unique and definitely figgy but not in an overpowering way. I'm very appreciatively that we got to try a dessert although I'm not sure my stomach or heart was.
I'm happy to say the bad steak streak has ended in a wonderful way. The service here was also excellent - very attentive but not in an overbearing way. I know I usually poo-poo Midtown as a culinary wasteland but honestly there are some great places, especially if you are looking for something more formal or classy. While I was disappointed that their more casual sister restaurant didn't live up to the hype, I'm glad the original one still stands the test of time.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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